Russia rejects Kosovo election

The parliamentary election held in Kosovo on December 12 was illegitimate and Russia does not accept its results, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry said.

The main reason for this position is that the election was organized by the government of the breakaway region, and Russia does not recognize its legitimacy, Aleksey Sazonov, head of the ministry’s press and information department said.He added that “the so-called success of the ultra-radical Kosovo Albanian parties” at the election is of concern for Moscow. Meanwhile, the Serbian population in Kosovo took an extremely small part in the election.In addition, the procedure itself was flawed and involved “the manipulation of voters’ lists, the use of fake ballots and multiple votes cast by same individuals.”The election in Kosovo resulted in the victory of the Prime Minister Hashim Thaci’s Democratic Party of Kosovo, which received one third of the votes. Second place is held by the Democratic League of Kosovo with about one quarter of votes.Earlier on Thursday, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov voiced Russia’s concerns over a report by Council of Europe human rights rapporteur Dick Marty, which accuses Thaci of being the mastermind behind trafficking of human donor organs taken from Serbian victims.